General Psychosocial Measures are Affected by the Situation Preceding Assessment: The ‘Arbitrary Distinction’ Between State and Trait Measures is Still Unresolved..

General psychosocial measures are assumed to be stable over time. However, such measures may be affected by the situation preceding their assessment. In this study, 28 participants completed the WHO-5 Well-Being Index, the Subjective Happiness Scale, and the Life Orientation Test, which are general measures, and the Positive Affect Negative Affect Schedule and the Feeling Scale, which are state measures. Subsequently, the first part of ‘Mega Disasters Nagasaki The Forgotten Bomb’ documentary was presented to the participants. Following the intervention, they completed the same measures again. State measures of negative affect increased, feeling state decreased as expected, but retrospectively measured well-being and the index of optimism also decreased. There were large individual differences. The findings indicate that general measures, assumed to be stable over time, could be influenced by a historical video depicting a disaster. Therefore, there might be a need for reporting and controlling the events preceding their measurement. These results imply that some empirical results, obtained with general or trait measures, may be affected by an event preceding their assessment if that event had an emotional impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]